Dwolla: Checks costing SMBs $13b

Is the way your business pays for things actually hurting the bottom line? In some cases, yes, according to new data out from payments network Dwolla. Their new study finds small businesses are spending more than $13 billion each year to process and maintain paper check operations.

"Small businesses are writing a $13 billion check each year for a process that does nothing but hurt their bottom-line that does nothing but cause headaches and hurt their bottom line," said Anne Driscoll, Vice President of Marketing at Dwolla. "Issuing paper checks is an old and manual process that clouds a business's ability to make real-time decisions and get paid faster, but existing platforms have been too expensive and complicated to set up and integrate for the small or non-tech businesses."

• 56% of men and 60% of women under age 30 'prefer' digital payment options
• 18% of those surveyed say they spend $100+ on checks/check materials
• 17% say they spend at least 5 hours maintaining checking accounts/operations
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To combat the problem, Dwolla is launching the Business Payments Toolkit, set up to speed deposits to Dwolla accounts and enable next day withdrawals to banks.

"The automated clearing house (ACH) plays a critical role in processing tens of trillions of dollars to settle payments made via checks, debit cards, and even credit card payments, but it's often seen as slower than alternatives and harder for SMBs and consumers to use daily, " said Ben Milne, CEO and founder of Dwolla. "Dwolla helps anyone tap into ACH's strengths, like ubiquity and low-cost, while providing easy-to-use tools, the same next day speed the biggest businesses get access to, and new security measures, like tokenization, to help modernize ACH."